More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
by CHUCKCHUCKY
Summary: After the Battle over New Phoenix, the master Chief crash lands into North America, and wakes up 400 years later. In a world that is completely different, yet oddly familiar, he searches for his armour, and with it Cortana's chip. As he searches the solar system, he comes to realize that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
1. Chapter 1

**"More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same"**

 _Hey guys, CHUCKCHUCKY here. I've had this story running through my head for a while, and I've finally decided to put it down to paper. Now, I realize that my last story was complete crap, so I hope this one will be better. I love the Halo Saga, and Destiny is a great game, and they both could connect easily, so why not combine them? So I did. I am starting this at the end of Halo 4(which is by far my favourite Halo), so Halo 5 has not happened in this timeline. I will, however, incorporate elements from Halo 5. So without further ado, here is "More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same"._

I do not own, and probably will never own, Destiny or Halo. Those are products of 343 Industries and Bungie respectively.

* * *

Chapter 1 - Ends are Beginnings

Falling and burning.

Flashes of blue. Calming blue.

Red eyes staring into the soul.

Choking grip.

"The Forerunners have returned."

Spartans. 4 years.

UNSC Infinity. Del Rio. Palmer. Lasky.

"Wake up, Chief!"

Blue. Sparks of Red.

Librarian. Didact. Composer. Prometheans.

New Phoenix, burning.

Rampancy. Red.

"Don't make a girl a promise you can't keep."

Reclaimer.

* * *

"Guardian... Guardian... Eyes up, Guardian."

The Master Chief opened his eyes groggily. Something was wrong. Firstly, his eyes didn't seem to want to open. This was weird, seeing as Spartans were trained to wake up as quickly as possible. If his eyes didn't want to open, that meant that he had either been drugged or knocked out. Both possibilities had bad connotations.

Secondly, he didn't feel the weight of his Mjolnir armour. If he didn't feel his armour, it confirmed that he was in a hostile place. That woke the Chief up. He reached for his Assault Rifle, only to realize that it wasn't there.

"Guardian? Hello?" Chief snapped his head up. Floating in front of him was a Forerunner Monitor. Or, what looked to be a Monitor. It was floating about six feet off the ground, with one blue eye in the centre of its face. It looked to be about half a foot in diameter, with rotating triangular prisms surrounding its one blue eye.

The Monitor spoke up. "Guardian? Are you alive? Please say something."

Now Chief was worried. He was in a unknown place, without his armour and assault rifle, and an unknown, possibly dangerous AI, was talking to him. So he did the only thing he could do in a situation like this. He went into defence mode.

He jumped backwards and to the side to hide behind a rusted-out car, curling up to make his body less visible. Then, he looked around for a weapon. There was a femur of a humanoid lying inside the vehicle he was hiding behind. He grabbed it, deciding that a weapon that probably wouldn't do much damage was better than no weapon at all. Then, and only then, did he look at what he was wearing.

He was wearing armour that, frankly, looked like it couldn't take a pickle thrown at it by Lord Hood's grandmother. In fact, it was armour that could barely even be considered armour. There was a thin sheet of armour covering the top half of his body, with a strip of armour that went over the shoulders to another piece of armour that was extremely thin. The lower half of his torso had a layer of fabric, but that was about it. His shoulders were protected by shoulderpads that were large, but again, thin. There was nothing on his biceps or forearms, and he was wearing padded gloves.

Around his waist was a strange fabric belt. It almost looked like someone wrapped a UNSC banner around his waist, and then slapped a few buckles and pouches to it. His thighs were covered in thin pieces of a grayish metal, but other then that, there was nothing else except thin cloth covering his legs. On his feet, there were what looked to be a type of combat boot that, like the rest of his outfit, was extremely thin.

He knew he was wearing a helmet, due to the weight on his head. However, the HUD was completely different than anything he'd ever seen. There was what looked to be a motion tracker in the top left corner, and an unfilled bar on the bottom. In the center top was a grey bar that the Chief could only assume was his health bar.

"Hey, Guardian? I know you're probably confused, but you need to calm down." the Forerunner A.I.'s voice broke the Master Chief from his studying of the strange armour. He peered around the corner of the rusty vehicle to glance at it. It appeared to be just sitting there, not actively trying to attack him. It either meant that it recognized him as a reclaimer, it was not designed for attack, or it was completely insane. Granted, to the Forerunners, those things were very similar. Knowing that he would have no chance of taking the A.I. unless it was by surprise, he decided to try and talk to it.

"Where am I?" the Master Chief asked from behind the car.

The AI seemed to look around, looking almost anxious, before responding. "Look, Guardian, I would love to tell you all about where you are, but we need to get going. Come nightfall, these hills will be swarming with fallen."

"I'm not going anywhere unless you tell me where I am, and who you are." the Master Chief said resolutely. Inside, however, he had some serious questions. First off, why was this Forerunner AI calling him guardian? Weren't they supposed to call humans Reclaimers? Also, what were fallen? All these questions were drawing some conclusions in the Chief's head, and none of them he liked.

The AI sighed exasperatedly. "Ugh, fine. You are on earth, in what used to be North America. Me? I'm a Ghost. I was sent out to find the bodies of people who had potential to be new Guardians to protect the last city. You had potential, and I chose you. And here we happy now, or do you want my biography?"

The answers that this "Ghost' gave him were not reassuring in the slightest. All of what was happening started to wind together in his head, and it wasn't pretty. It all added up to the fact that this was not his earth. At least, not the one he was familiar with. Disturbed, he asked the question that would confirm his suspicions. "What year is it?"

The ghost, oblivious to the internal conflict that this abnormally large human was facing, growled. "Its 2957, OK? Can we get going now? I don't want you to die like the last guy I tried to revive."

The Chief ignored the last comment because the first one confirmed his suspicions. The last year that he remembered was 2556. But the 400 year jump made no sense. The last thing he remembered was floating in space after destroying the Didact, when earth's gravity caught hold of him and started to pull him down. He had blacked out when he hit the ground. He remembered thinking right before he hit the ground, _I don't think I can do this a second time_. There was no way he was lucky enough to survive falling from orbit twice, but how come he was in the future? That is, if what this "Ghost" was saying was true.

That was when he remembered why he was floating in space in the first place. The words that Cortana said came flashing back to him. He stiffened up and reached for the back of his head when he realized that he wasn't wearing his armour. He stood up quickly and turned to the Ghost to ask, "Where is my armour?".

The Ghost looked at him strangely. "Uhh, you're wearing it?"

"My Mjolnir. Its green, big, bulky?"

"Never seen it. But, if you come with me, we can look for it. After we get to the Tower, of course."

The Chief thought for a moment. On one hand, he could probably find his way out quicker than with this AI. Plus, he was a super soldier, so he could probably fight his way out of any problem he found himself into. However, fighting wasn't always the answer to problems, and he didn't know his way around, so following Ghost to this "Tower" might be the best thing to do. Also, there was the fact that his armour was basically useless, and that he had no weapons. After a few more seconds of pondering he had a answer. He would also be able to find his armour quicker, and with it, Cortana's chip "As long as you can promise that we will look for my armour as soon as possible, I'll come with you. I reserve the right to leave at any point."

The Ghost sighed again, albeit resigned this time. "Ok, fine. But you're not going to find anything. This place will have been picked clean by fallen ages ago." As if to punctuate his words, an eerie howl could be heard out in the distance. "Now let's get going. I don't have an itching desire to be shot down."

The Master Chief motioned with his head. "Lead on." He had a suit of armour to find.

* * *

Far of in the distance, an ancient computer's lights started to dimly show. It slowly booted up, its processor humming loudly as it turned on for the first time in centuries. Finally, it turned on, connecting to satellites that hadn't been used since the computer was last on. It slowly started to search for the receiver that it was to transmit information to. As it did so, it connected to more satellites of the same type, quickly boosting its signal strength.

After hours of searching, it finally found the receiver, in the middle of an area that should have a large population distribution, but didn't. The program put this information away for later use. The receiver was there, but it wasn't responding. With nothing to do but gather more information, the program waited until the receiver was active again. Until Spartan II 117 was ready, it would wait.

* * *

 _AN: Well, here's the first chapter. Hopefully you like this much more than my other story. If you want to hate one it, go ahead, I do as well. Also, constructive criticism is always appreciated. I'm not the best when it comes to lore, so correct me if I have anything wrong in my story. Obviously Destiny lore has been changed to fit the fact that it takes place after the Halo saga, so please don't rage on me about that. Other than that, please feel free to review and follow. I don't have the greatest record when it comes to posting so don't expect me to post in the next week or month._


	2. Chapter 2

_AN: Hey guys, CHUCKCHUCKY here, back at ya with another chapter! Sorry that it took me so long to post, but I was at camp for most of the summer, and there's no Internet access there. Plus I had little to no free time, so there was really nothing that I could do. However, I am back and here's the story. Little side note, I was surprised that no one caught my Lord of the Rings reference. The first person to find it and PM me, I'll put your OC in the story. But, without further ado, here comes chapter 2!_

 **I do not own, and probably will never own, Destiny or Halo. Those are products of 343 Industries and Bungie respectively.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Things Change**

It was about three hours of walking before the Chief and Ghost were attacked. Which, considering all the times that he had crash landed in strange places, was probably a record. It was strange, Chief reflected, not having to fight for his life the minute he stepped out of his escape pod. It certainly gave him time to think about this new world he was in.

Chief and the Ghost had walked in silence for the first two hours. As they did, Chief had observed the world around him. They had left the wilderness that he had woken up in, entering into a city. It looked nothing like the way the cities of North America was supposed to look like, or at least how he was told it looked like. Instead of the clean, white skyscrapers that the propaganda of earth always showed, the buildings were brown and crumbling. There weren't any of the pine trees that North America was so proud of; in fact, there was very little vegetation. The pavement was almost non-existent underneath the dust that had blown over it. The streets had blown up cars everywhere, evidence of a massive, bloody battle. It looked like the world had gone into a nuclear apocalypse.

Finally the Chief decided to ask about everything around him. "What happened to earth? The UNSC would never let this happen to earth."

Ghost turned to Chief, lookin at him questioningly. "What do you mean, 'what happened?'. Don't you remember?"

Chief kept walking. "Humor me."

Ghost sighed, somewhat shaking his body. " It all started when the Darkness came, following the Traveler."

The Master Chief interrupted Ghost. "What's the Darkness? And the Traveler?"

Ghost stopped abruptly with that statement. "How do you not know what the Traveler is? I understand not knowing what the Darkness is, as you were probably killed at the start of the war, but the Traveler? Seriously?" Ghost narrowed his eye, squinting at the Chief. "What's the last year you remember?"

"2556." Chief replied promptly.

"That's not possible. That doesn't explain why I found your skeleton on the pavement. And why your bones were still in somewhat good condition. You have to be wrong. What's the last major world event you remember?

The Master Chief thought for a second, before answering, "The Battle of New Phenix." He decided to not say anything about being one of the main players in that fight. It was better to hold your cards close to your chest.

It apparently didn't matter, as Ghost had no idea that a battle had even taken place. He did, however, have differ interesting tidbit of information. "Some studies that some warlocks have done on that area of North America show that parts of it had already been abandoned before the Traveler had even come." Ghost looked at the Master Chief again, this time with a look of thought. "I have no idea how or why you were even there, but maybe you can shed some light on what life was like before the Traveler came."

Maybe, Chief thought, not that I have the big of a grasp on what civilians live like. Instead of voicing his thoughts, he asked Ghost to continue explaining what happened to earth instead.

"Well, seeing as you have no idea what happened," Ghost continued, "I'll, start at the beginning…"

"It all started when the people of earth found the Traveler. Because of the War with the Darkness, almost all records of what happened in the world before that have been lost, but studies show that the coming of the Traveler completely changed how everything worked. Government, technology, even space travel. Peace fell over all of earth and her colonies. The few remaining records seem to hint towards even a working coalition government with an unnamed alien race."

That statement made Chief stiffen a bit, but corrected himself before Ghost could catch him. It wasn't possible that UNSC and the Sangheili had been working together, let alone have the same government. The hatred between the two races was too much. He didn't say anything however, continuing to listen.

"It was humanity's golden age. However, the Traveler had an age old enemy, the Darkness, that had followed him. It attacked humanity, pushing them back to earth in the span of a few years. It looked like the end was near, but the Traveler, in his dying breath, created the Ghosts. We went out and made guardians as humanity's first and last defense. We fought back the Darkness, and it retreated from us. Now, we watch over the Last City on Earth, and go out into the solar system to take back what is rightfully ours."

This was a lot for the Chief to take in. The galaxy he had fought for was gone and this new one that he knew nothing about had taken its place. He refused to believe that the UNSC was completely gone, however. The UNSC had contingencies in place for this sort of thing. He asked, seeing if there was anything that Ghost knew.

"UNSC? Well, we have found quite a few weapons with that label, and we did find what we assumed was an ship graveyard. The ships were locked however, and we couldn't get into them. There is also a shipwreck as well. We couldn't get into that either. Other than those things, no. Scholars assumed it was some sort of paramilitary group."

That gave Chief some hope. The UNSC could still be out there.

"But they're probably wrong, aren't they? What is it actually?" Ghost asked Chief, stopping and turning to face him.

The Chief kept on walking forward, his back straightening in pride as he answered. "The UNSC is, or was in my time, the military and government of humanity. They oversaw Earth and her colonies, keeping them safe from external and internal threats."

Ghost hummed. "So it was a military style dictatorship?"

Chief quickly came to the UNSC's defense. "It was desperately needed at the time, as we were fighting a war against a conglomerate aliens hell bent on wiping out humanity. Plus, we had to deal with an Insurrection at the same time."

"Fascinating." Ghost replied. "I haven't even been talking to you for an hour, and already you've shed light on a subject we've known very little about! Granted, you could be making everything up on the spot, but we can verify if your actually from the past with a few medical tests."

"Absolutely not." Chief replied automatically.

"Look, it's just a bit of blood work. It doesn't hurt a bit. What are you afraid of?"

"It's classified."

"Your blood?!"

"Classified."

"Sheesh, you really must have lived in a dictatorship."

The conversation died there, as the Chief wasn't willing to divulge any more information, and Ghost didn't feel like prying.

* * *

Chief and Ghost were attacked as the sun was beginning to set. It started as they were walking through a street with a collapsed skyscraper on one side, and a skyscraper with its top half blown off on the other. As the Master Chief clamored over a large piece of rubble, he felt a sense of foreboding settle in the back of his head. Something was watching them.

"Ghost," He whispered quietly, "Do you have any scanning capabilities?"

Ghost stopped suddenly, understanding why he was asking. "I do, but I need to connect to you to use them. Hold still, this will sting a bit."

Ghost suddenly disappeared in a flash of familiar blue digital energy, and Chief felt a cold shock at the back of mind. No, he thought, this isn't right. But he couldn't follow that line of thought when his motion sensor was brought online and all he saw was red.

"Contact!" He yelled as he swung around in backhand, cracking the neck of a cloaked creature sneaking up behind him.

"Fallen!" Ghost yelled at the same time. "Their armour is susceptible to penetrating damage, and they have weaker necks!"

Chief registered that at the back of his mind as he went into battle mode. He glanced at the dead alien, or Fallen as Ghost called them, to get a better look at what was trying to kill him. It was a foot or so smaller then him, and wearing a breather mask. It was also bipedal, having four arms instead of two. That's all Chief was able to see before he was shot at.

He ducked behind a piece of rubble to use as cover, and peered around the side to see what he was up against. There were 5 in total. Four that had only two arms, and one that had four. The ones with two arms had pistol-like weapons, while the one with four had a rifle type. The one with four arms bellowed something in an alien language, pointing at the Chief. Obviously it was telling them to advance towards the enemy, as that's what they did.

Chief ducked back down behind cover, looking around for something he could use as a weapon. He still had the femur he grabbed when he was woken up, but that would very little to armour. As he gazed around, his eyes settled on the fallen that he had killed. In its dead hands there was a bladed weapon, crackling with a bit of electricity. Chief smirked.

He grabbed the blade out of the Fallen's hand, and crouched behind cover, waiting for one of the Fallen to come close enough. When the first Fallen got within five feet of the rubble, the Master Chief pounced. He vaulted over the rubble and landed on top of the Fallen, shoving the sword through the back of the Fallen's neck. He then whipped around to impale the next nearest Fallen in the neck as well.

The third and fourth two-armed Fallen, realizing that this wasn't an easy, new guardian as they had hoped, backed up and began to fire at it. This didn't help in the slightest, as the Chief scooped one of the fallen Fallen's pistols up and started firing. Within the first four shots that he got off, he had moved to cover and killed the third Fallen. The last two-armed Fallen, sensing that it was about to die, decided to go out in a blaze of glory. Screaming at the top of its lungs, it charged the barricade that the Chief was hiding behind. Chief popped around the side of the barricade and stabbed the sword through its chest as he shot a bullet through the Fallen's head.

All that was left to take down was the four armed one. It apparently had a larger brain than the other four, as it hung back and started shooting from behind cover. Chief ducked behind cover, trying to pull the sword out of the Fallen's body. It was wedged too tightly, however, as the sword broke in half. Dammit, Chief thought. He popped up to fire off a round at the final Fallen's head, but the gun clicked dry. Dammit again. He looked around for a weapon, but couldn't find any.

"Guardian, check your HUD. Is there blinking icon on the bottom right?" Ghost asked, the first words he had said the entire firefight.

Chief looked, and there was. "Yes, there is."

The HUD warped slightly in time with Ghost's words. "Good. I need you to charge and punch the Vandal."

"What." Chief questioned.

"Just trust me, OK? I wouldn't have brought you back from the dead if I wanted to kill you off."

"Fine, but we need to talk about you being in my head after this." Chief stated as he stood up.

"Anything, just get us out alive.

The four armed Fallen, or Vandal, had moved closer in the time that Chief and Ghost had talked. It was confused. Had the prey left, or died? It got it's answer in the form of a armoured being rushing him, fist cocked in a punch. As Chief ran towards the Vandal, he noticed his fist starting to glow, as a tingly feeling ran through his fingers. He wound up in a Haymaker, and let loose on the Vandal.

The resulting punch was glorious. A Blast of power as the fist contacted added a kind electric that caused the entire body of the Vandal to convulse, adding to the damage the punch did to the head of the Vandal. The corpse dropped to the ground, headless.

"Well that was amazing," Ghost said, in awe. "That first bit happened in less than thirty seconds, not to mention the power behind that punch. Then there-"

"Stop." Chief commanded. "Before anything else, how and why are you in my head? And what was that strange energy on my fist?"

"Well, as a guardian, I am fundamentally connected to you. I am a conduit for your Light (which was that power you saw and felt), a connection to your armour, weapons and everything else, and I also keep you connected with other Guardians. I'm also what holds your body together, so there's that too." Ghost said, hesitantly, sensing something amiss.

"But why are you in my head?" Chief asked again, this time more forcefully.

"Because it's the easiest way to communicate with you! I'm not trying to take control of you or anything, Sheesh!" Ghost said appearing again and backing away fearfully.

"So you can't get into my brain?" Chief questioned, a bit calmer now.

"No, no." Ghost answered with a sigh. "I store myself mostly in your armour, and only a bit of myself resides in the outer part of your mind. I can't do anything to you but heal you and bring you back from the dead."

"OK, good." Chief said continuing to walk in the direction they were originally heading. "Tell me, how do you bring me back from the dead?"

Ghost sighed, slightly shaking his head before following Chief. "Not a question to ask me. I just know I can do it, not the finer points of theory."

They traveled in silence for a bit before Chief asked another question. "Those aliens back there were called Fallen? Why were they on Earth?"

"Well," Ghost began, "When the Darkness pushed us back to earth, the Fallen were one of their armies. There were others, but these were the most prominent. They and their houses have control over most of the Earth, squabbling amongst themselves."

"So Guardians are the ones that go out and drive away these aliens?"

"We are Earth's first and last defense, so yes, it is."

"Humph." went Chief, thinking about that. There wasn't that big of a difference between Spartans and these Guardians, the only major one being that one was supposed to be secret, while the other was very public heroes. The universe just loves shoving me in the same role over and over, doesn't it, Chief thought in dark humour.

They walked in silence past broken shells of building for half an hour before Ghost asked a question. "You know, I never asked for your name. What is it?"

Chief thought for a moment before turning to Ghost.

"You can call me John."

* * *

 _AN: Well there is chapter 2! I really hope you guys enjoyed it! I spent an entire weekend at the lake writing it, so it better be good. As always, constructive criticism is appreciated, as is pointing places where I may have gotten lore wrong. Remember to Review and click favourite! CHUCKCHUCKY out!_


	3. Chapter 3

_AN: Hey guys, CHUCKCHUCKY back again with another chapter! Before I say anything else, everyone give a round of applause to Gbav115, who is the lucky winner of last chapter's challenge. You'll be seeing his OC soon. Now, I want to seriously apologize for this extremely late chapter. I had planned to have this finished by the end of September, but school got real busy with a production happening and massive amounts of Pre-cal. Again, I really am sorry. Also, thanks to the people who pointed out a few things that were wrong with my story. You know who you are! But without further ado, here is the chapter you guys were waiting for!_

* * *

 **Chapter Three: Back at the Ranch (or Tower)**

The Tower. The sign of peace and protection to a beleaguered city. A beacon of hope, and the home of the first and last defenders of Humanity. It had stood for eons, and in some people's minds, would stand until the end of time. Some days, people would look up to the horizon to see the Tower's silhouette standing tall, and would feel a sense of security and peace, knowing that the Guardians were standing arm in arm in solidarity.

To the outside eye, it would seem that way. But if you looked closer, you could see the political cracks along the surface, the tensions between different guardians, and the power struggle between factions. In the public eye, the tower was growing strong. To the private eye, it was crumbling.

These thoughts occupied the mind of Cayde-6 as he walked to the vanguards table in the wee hours of the morning. The weak light of a rising mid-winter sun fell across the courtyard as he strolled through, back from a meeting with the Dead Orbit. They were making waves again, trying to get granted approval to access the UNSC ship graveyard. Even after being told that if Ghosts couldn't get into the locked down ships, they wouldn't be able to, they still persisted. If it was so hard for Ghosts to get in, they asked, why couldn't they peek around? Was the Vanguards trying to hide something?

The fact of the matter was that the ship graveyard was overrun by two warring Houses of Fallen, and the Tower couldn't spare any Guardians to go. After the Battle of the Twilight Gap, sending guardians out in groups of three became more of a necessity than tradition. And with the amount of Fallen pouring into the graveyard, there was no way that they could muster up enough Guardians to clear the area enough to even send a research team in. That didn't stop the Dead Orbit from trying to gain access, though. Cocky buggers.

Cayde-6 slowed as he walked down the steps to the Vanguards table. He was the one that was usually chosen out of the Vanguards to deal with Dead Orbit. He didn't have any of the racial connections that Zavala had, and he had three times the charisma that Ikora had. He also didn't take any crap from them. It took about five hours (shorter than most times), to convince the Dead Orbit to actually stand back. He had to give them access to a disabled shuttle in orbit to satisfy them, but it was better than sending them off to die.

"So? How'd the negotiations go?" Ikora asked as Cayde walked up to his usual spot by the Table.

"They complained, I told them no, they complained about that. You know, the usual." Cayde quipped as he looked down at the pile of paperwork that he had in front of him. The pile never seemed to end, and whenever he had reached the bottom, there always seemed to be a new one that materialized beside it.

"What did they want rights to? Please don't tell me they wanted that ship graveyard in Africa again." Ikora queried.

"What do you think?" Cayde said rhetorically, glaring at Ikora. He shook his head as he looked down to the top paper on the stack. It was a materials request by a the New Monarchy. "Not that it matters. I gave them access to that weird purple shuttle in orbit to calm them down. It was only thing that would."

"That junky thing?" Zavala said as he interjected himself into the conversation.

"I thought the exact same thing." Cayde did a half grunt, half laugh. "Whatever. The got what they wanted, and we didn't lose much." The conversation ended there. The other two vanguard knew that dealing with Dead Orbit always put Cayde in a bad mood, and didn't feel like pushing it today.

And so the morning past in relative silence, save for a new guardian, a warlock, showing up from Old Russia. Ikora dealt with him, pointing out the where to get engrams decoded, where to get bounties, where to get a jumpship, and other things all the new guardians need to know. It was about four hours after Cayde got back did the conversation start up again.

"So, did I miss anything exciting while I was gone?" Cayde asked as he finished signing a form for a hunter requesting permission to scout a part of Old Europe, then marking the location on his map.

"Well, the Speaker came to visit." Zavala replied nonchalantly.

Cayde sputtered. "W-what? You didn't think of telling me this sooner?"

Ikora looked at him with a glare. "You know how you get in a mood every time you visit Dead Orbit."

"Just because they're a bunch of scavenging, whining jackals doesn't mean that they should take precedence over when the freaking Speaker shows up!"

Zavala looked at Ikora. " I think he's still in his mood."

Cayde looked at the sky, praying for patience, before turning to Zavala. "Nevermind. What did the Speaker want? He doesn't come down unless there's something big happening."

"There might be." Ikora said, kneading her head. "He was more elusive than ever. He told us that a storm of Darkness was brewing, and that we need to prepare the Guardians for it."

Cayde squinted his visual receptors in confusion. "That was it? I expected vagueness, but that's a whole new level."

Zavala cleared his throat as Ikora and Cayde looked him. "That wasn't all. He also told us that the Traveler had raised a new "generation of heroes" to lead the Light through the storm."

Ikora pinched the bridge of her nose. "That could mean literally anything."

Cayde chuckled dryly as he looked down. "You're right about that."

"That doesn't mean that we shouldn't keep our eyes open for these heroes." Zavala stated, putting his hand behind his back.

"Sure, 'cause that's going to be so easy." Cayde snorted. "Just watch, their going to stand right in front of us and we'll think their just another guardian. Heck, I'll even bet that that warlock that just showed up is actually one of those heroes."

"We will recognize them when the time is right." Zavala said resolutely as he turned back to his reports.

Cayde was about to reply when his datapad started flashing with a high priority alert. He lifted it up and activated the alert. Ikora and Zavala watched as Cayde stared at the pad for a minute or so before before he put it down with sigh of resignation. "The universe just loves proving me wrong, doesn't it?"

Zavala looked at Cayde in confusion. "What?" Cayde answered by tossing the datapad to Zavala looked at it for a bit before he started chuckling. "I told you." He then slid it to Ikora.

Ikora caught the datapad and looked at the alert as well. It was a reinforcement request from a group of hunters scouting North America. As she got to the end of the request, her mouth cracked in a grin. She set the datapad down and turned to Cayde. "Looks like we found our first one."

Cayde groaned as he took the datapad back. "Don't remind me. Now, who should we send? Because I've got the perfect guy in mind."

Ikora shook her head. "Please don't let it be Dys."

Cayde cracked a grin. "It's Dys."

"Then at least send someone else with him." Ikora asked in frustration. "He has no healing experience, and has no other fighting mode then charging."

"Dys is one of my best fighters. Do not underestimate his fighting abilities." Zavala pitched in, miffed that Ikora thought so lowly of one of his Titans.

"But, she is right in the fact that he has no healing expertise. We do need to send someone else, if only to provide more manpower." Cayde said, siding with Ikora.

"I propose that we send the new warlock." Ikora said, looking at the notes she jotted down about him.

"But he hasn't even learnt how to use his super! How is he supposed to be of help?" Cayde said, whipping his head around to look at Ikora.

"He told me that he had medical training before he died, and hopefully Dys can teach him a thing or two about using his super."

Cayde looked upwards in thought for a moment, before turning back to Zavala. "What's your thoughts?"

"I think that works out nicely."

Cayde threw his hands in the air. "Great! So the crotchety old man and the fresh faced newbie join forces to rescue the mysterious stranger. This is turning out to be a regular action flick, isn't it?"

"Calm down, Cayde. It won't be that bad. We needed to place them both in a fireteam anyway. This works out for the best." Ikora said calmly as she placed her hand on Cayde's shoulder in a placating manner.

"Fine. But don't come crying to me when this blows up in our face."

Zavala walk around the table and placed his on Cayde's other shoulder. "I'll go tell Dys." Zavala then picked up an engram and strode away.

Ikora grabbed an another engram from the table and put it in a pouch on her belt. "And Clarence should be back-"

Cayde bowed over in unrestrained laughter. "Wait! You mean the warlock's name is Clarence?! You may well just give him the title of cleric!"

Ikora glared at him. "Just go get them some supplies. I'll get Clarence and tell him." She shot him another glare for good measure before walking away herself.

After a minute or so of laughing, Cayde took a deep breath to calm himself. He then grabbed a few requisition forms to get the supplies needed. He walked away, still chuckling to himself. "Clarence the Cleric.."

On the table, still open, was the data pad with the alert. On the screen was shaky video of a large group of Fallen swarming an old spaceship wreck. However, they couldn't get past the door as something was blocking them. It looked to be a guardian, but of what class, you couldn't tell. This guardian was punching, kicking and stabbing with a wicked looking knife for all that he was worth, and he was actually pushing the group of Fallen back. He was able to fight them off, but only got a few seconds of reprieve before the next group assaulted him. This happened over and over before the video stabilized enough for it to focus on the guardian. It was a Titan wearing the standard starting armour, with one exception. There was a red banner hanging from his waist with a picture of an eagle standing on the earth. Underneath it was a four letter acronym.

UNSC.

* * *

 _AN: Well, what did you think? I know that there was no Chief, but I needed to set up other parts of the story as well. Again, please congratulate_ Gbav115 _for his OC Dys. And Clarence? Well, he's a joke between friends that kinda fit the character I wanted my warlock to be. In our next chapter, you will get to meet Dys and Clarence for the first time, as well as hopefully be able to see what Chief has been up to._

 _I would love to have a specific time to tell you when you'll get the next chapter, but I don't. So just keep your eyes peeled for the next chapter, and don't forget to favourite and review! CHUCKCHUCKY out!_


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